- Town Hall Meeting – It’s a Banner Day!
Town Hall Meetings were held for an audience of primarily Computer Services staff members (December 5), the Faculty Senate (December 12), and the School of Medicine Monthly General Administrators Meeting (December 16). The presentation covered the issue of change, the background outlining why Temple needs to upgrade administrative systems, the progress that has been made, what is coming next, and changes to expect.
- Data Standards
Work on defining data standards continues. Current discussions focus on who can change data and what documents are needed to initiate a change. Draft procedures are under review by the Executive Committee.
- Non-Credit Courses
A survey was distributed to 35 groups throughout the University. The purpose of the survey is to establish an inventory of non-credit courses that are offered and the nature of those courses. This information is needed to define requirements for administering and tracking registration and billing for non-credit courses in Banner.
- Finance Update
Forty-five percent of the Finance interfaces were completed and tested in Banner. Also, current forms were inventoried to see which ones will be changed to incorporate the new FOAPAL.
- Human Resources Focus Group
A Human Resources focus group of business managers from schools and colleges and other administrative units has been established. The group meets on a monthly basis to discuss Human Resources processes and provide feedback that can be used in designing future processes and configuring Banner.
- Banner Upgrades
Internet Native Banner (INB) was upgraded to 8.1 to install the latest updates. The Financial Aid module was upgraded to 8.2.
- eVisions Program
Evisions, software to perform check printing, was installed in the development environment. Test Account Payable checks were printed.
- Data Governance
The Data Standards Committee developed a draft document, Recommendations for Stewardship, Custodianship, and Data Governance in Banner, which presents a proposed framework for defining data standards, maintaining data integrity, and managing access to Banner data. The document is under final review by the Executive Steering Committee. Once approved, the recommendations will be formalized into various policies and procedures.
- Kronos Steering Committee
A steering committee was established to provide leadership, decision making and policy development during the Kronos implementation. Kronos is a time and leave attendance collection system that will be used for all employees, except faculty. Roll–out is scheduled to begin in February 2009 and will be completed no later than June 2009.
- Town Hall Meeting – It’s a Banner Day!
Town Hall Meetings were held on the Ambler Campus (November 7) and at the Health Sciences Center (November 11). The presentation covered the issue of change, the background outlining why Temple needs to upgrade administrative systems, the progress that has been made, what is coming next, and changes to expect.
- Non-Credit Courses
The Non-Credit Courses Committee developed a survey to identify the variety and number of non-credit courses. All Schools and Colleges were asked to participate.
- Kronos Contract
Kronos is a time and attendance collection system. The Kronos contract was signed and an internal kickoff meeting was held. A phased department by department rollout is planned and a meeting with the Kronos project representatives has been scheduled to finalize the implementation plan.
- Human Resources Focus Groups
Focus group sessions were held on budget and position control and finance fringe benefit calculation and general ledger interfaces.
- Non-Credit Courses
A Non-Credit Courses Committee has been appointed and members are meeting every two weeks. The committee will develop a policy defining what a non-credit course is and how non-credit courses can be tracked and implemented in Banner.
- Banner 8
Banner 7 was uninstalled and teams are working exclusively now on Banner 8.
- Town Hall Meeting – It’s a Banner Day!
An invitation was sent to all faculty, administrators, and staff to attend a series of Town Hall meetings on Main Campus Main Campus (October 24), the Ambler Campus (November 7), and at the Health Sciences Center (November 11). The Main Campus event was held and the presentation covered the issue of change, the background outlining why Temple needs to upgrade administrative systems, the progress that has been made, what is coming next, and changes to expect.
- eVisions Contract
The contract for eVisions check printing software was signed. Installation and training will occur in October 2008.
- Resource 25 Installation
Resource 25, software for classroom and event scheduling, was inserted into the project plan. Installation will start in March and the program will go live with the Course Catalog in November 2010.
- Institutional Advancement Implementation
Installation of the Institutional Advancement modules will begin in September 2009 with a target go-live date of October 2010.
- Finance Progress
A crosswalk table of old FMS centers to the new Banner FOAPAL (Fund Organization Account Program Activity and Location) was developed and made available on FMSontheWeb. The table will be added as a TUportal channel in the upcoming months.
- TUmarketplace Launch
First live orders placed using TUmarketplace, Temple's new online one-stop shopping site for departmental purchases, on August 22, 2008. Rollout to University community scheduled for September.
- Data Standards Update
The Executive Steering Committee approved the non-person name standards. The standards for name, e-mail, and telephone number are now under review.
- Non-Credit CoursesThe Student Administration team is working, in conjunction with the Provost team, to define and survey all courses and activities classified as non-credit. Currently, non-credit courses are tracked in multiple systems throughout Temple.
- Banner 8 Installation The Banner environment was upgraded to version 8. Banner 8 is the first version to deal with international addresses. Clean Address, a program to define address standards, has been installed.
- Newly Reengineered TUportal
Design of the new TUportal was completed, existing portal content was migrated and extensive testing was performed. The portal was then launched on Monday evening, July 28. The reengineered TUportal is the first major system of Project Enterprise to go live.
- TUmarketplace
Phase 1 of TUmarketplace, an online procurement system, is scheduled to begin a four-month phased rollout on August 29. Testing among a pilot group has been successful and that group will be the first to use the new system. During the initial launch, 9 of 18 vendor catalogs will be available with more vendors coming on board during the fiscal year. Departments will be contacted to come on board through December. Sourcing Manager was also added to TUmarketplace. This software will allow vendors to place bids online and participate in reverse auctions.
- Name and E-mail Data Standards
The Data Standards Committee completed drafts for names and e-mail. The standards were vetted and approved by Functional Team members. The documents are currently under review by the Executive Committee. Next in line are data standards for addresses.
- Chart of Accounts Update
The current chart of accounts was successfully loaded in Banner on July 8 and reporting against the chart has occurred. Transactional testing and chart hygiene continues. Teams are also working with departments on reorganizing numbering and also on ways to reduce the amount of account numbers.
- Banner Advancement Team
The Advancement Steering Committee and Functional Team Members have been identified and added to the Project Teams Organization Chart. Business process analysis is underway and the reporting inventory is being reviewed.
- Resource 25 Timeline
The kickoff meeting for CollegeNET’s Resource 25, software for classroom and event scheduling, was held. The project will officially start in February 2009.
- Banner Advancement Contract
The contract was finalized to include the Banner Advancement module in Project Enterprise. The Executive Committee approved an updated Project Organization Chart which includes Advancement Teams and work now begins on incorporating this module into the project plan.
- Operational Data Store (ODS)
The ODS, which supports reporting requirements by integrating data for the various Banner modules, has been installed.
- E-Procurement Integration
The hardware to support SciQuest, an online procurement system providing an Amazon-like shopping cart environment for purchasing goods was installed within the Project Enterprise infrastructure. An interim launch of SciQuest will occur this fall under the name “TUmarketplace.” More updates will be announced soon.
- Non-Person Entity Data Standards
Over the past two months, a cross-functional Data Standards Committee has been meeting. Approval of the Non-Person Entity standards occurred. These standards provide data entry conventions for entities such as foundations, corporations and independent contractors. The standards will also guide data cleansing activities during conversion. Developing standards for person names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses is now underway.
- Chart of Accounts Update
The chart of accounts is a critical component of the project as it lays the financial and organizational foundation for all the Banner modules. Finance teams are actively designing the chart structure and vetting the design with various business managers, committees, and operational staff. It is expected that the structure will change slightly from our current structure and that a full chart will be loaded in Banner Finance sometime in July.
- Luminis Portal Software Update
The Luminis portal is scheduled to go live later this summer. The portal committee is finalizing the design of the user interface and login page. Migration of current portal content is also in progress.
- Human Resources Future State
The Human Resources team has completed the HR Business Process Analysis diagrams.
- Luminis Portal Software
Luminis production software has been installed. The Portal Committee, formed to make decisions regarding portal functionality, is meeting on a weekly basis. The Committee has completed a draft of guidelines for posting targeted announcements.
- Data Conversion Planning
SunGard held day-long sessions to create plans for migrating data from the legacy systems to Banner. Data migration will begin in June and it will start with the GP (general person) module.
The Data Standards Committee continues to meet on a biweekly basis. Focus is on defining standards for four data elements needed in the General Person conversion: person record, non-person entities (such as organizations), addresses (including international), telephone numbers and e-mail information. The standards for these elements will be presented to the Executive Committee in late May or early June.
- Egrading and DARwin
Electronic grading and Darwin are part of the ERP transition. Egrading, which allows faculty to submit grades online, went live on April 21, 2008 along with an online tutorial.
DARwin replaces the current legacy DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System) used to track the academic progress of undergraduate students. It is in the process of being released to advisors and is scheduled for student release the week after Commencement.
- fsaAtlas
Implementation of fsaAtlas, the first major Enterprise milestone, occurred on April 29, 2008, a day ahead of schedule. This system is used by the Office of International Services to manage international student information. Temple’s first official interface from fsaAtlas to the government system SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) was also successful. The system will be monitored over the next few weeks.
- SunGard Summit
Over 8,500 representatives from higher education attended the SunGard Summit Users Conference. Twenty-five plus Enterprise team members from all areas of the project attended. Attendees reported that the conference was extremely worthwhile. Over 900 courses were offered with a choice of 30 sessions at any one time.
- Data Standards Document
A Data Standards document was drafted for the Data Standards Committee. The Committee, which meets on a biweekly basis, will develop rules and regulations that will govern how data will be entered, the format that will be used, and who will be responsible for specific shared data items. Committee members were assigned different portions of the draft document for development.
- Data Migration
A series of data migration meetings were held to discuss how existing Finance, Human Resources, Student, and Advancement data will be converted into the Banner environment.
- Luminis Portal Migration
SunGard was onsite for three days to present an overview and conduct visioning sessions on the Luminis portal. The discussion focused on communication using Luminis targeted announcements and the group feature for students and communities.
Currently, six of the current single sign-on systems have been converted for Luminis. Work on three additional portlets is about to begin. In addition, the production hardware and software for Luminis is being set up to get ready for the July launch.
- Chart of Accounts
A proposed chart of accounts was loaded into Banner in an effort to see how the structure would work in the new Finance system. The Finance Team learned from this process and will be refining the proposed design.
- Data Standards Committee
A committee has been formed to evaluate data formats and develop consistent data entry standards to support the upcoming single University-wide integrated database.
- Issues Database
An issues database was developed in order for Project Team members to track issues. Examples of issues include may be a policy change, conflicting priorities among resources, a delay in the completion of a task, or a GAP in functionality.
- Enterprise Web Site
A public web site to keep the University community informed about the latest Enterprise developments was created and announced.
- Project Space
The recently completed Enterprise workspace on the 4th floor of the Bell Building is humming with activity. The training room is booked, meetings are being held in the conference room, and team members are starting to move in.
- Reporting Inventory
The project teams are using the Reports' section of a database called the "ERP Data Collection System" to gather information on Temple's reports. All production jobs that currently run have been loaded into the database. The Functional and Technical Leads are reviewing and categorizing each report (now 4,600) to decide if it is still needed. If the report is not in Banner, it needs to be developed. Teams must also look at Focus Reports and reports that overlap. Report evaluation is scheduled to be completed at the end of February.
- Software/Hardware
The portal software, Luminis, was installed. Internet Native Banner (INB) and Self Serve Banner (SSB) will both be installed by February 15th for testing. On February 18th, Dell will run diagnostics to verify that all servers are operational. At the end of that week, Dell will do verification testing to make sure training can begin.
- Chart of Accounts Prototype
The Finance team produced a document called the "Chart of Accounts Prototype." This document outlines our current chart and Banner’s structure of FOAPAL (Fund, Organization, Account, Program, Activity, and Location). Most likely, Temple will not have to do recoding because current identifiers should still work. The 4-digit steward number will remain the same as well as the 1-7 fund number. An alphanumeric character will be added to the 3-digit identifier to indicate a center’s function.
- Project Space
The dedicated space for Project Enterprise activities on the 4th floor of the Bell Building is almost ready. Staff will begin moving in on February 15th. Training for the technical staff and the Finance staff starts on February 25th.
January 2008
- Equipment Installation
Over the holiday break, preproduction equipment was installed. This included 60 Dell Blade servers and a SAN with 40 disk arrays. Currently, Oracle RAC software and Luminis portal software is being installed.
- Project Planning Activities
The Project Enterprise Manager, Lynne Zullo, led project teams in defining the implementation sequence of Banner modules and other third-party products. These meetings resulted in a high level project plan and timeline that is now being used to determine SunGard's resource requirements and a training schedule.
- Dedicated Project Team Space
Construction on dedicated space for the working project teams is underway. On the 4th floor of the Bell Building, there will be space for 40 staff members, six consultants, a 30-seat training room, and a 44-seat conference room. It is anticipated that staff will begin moving in on February 15.
- SciQuest Interim
SciQuest is an online procurement system providing an Amazon-like shopping cart environment for purchasing goods. A meeting was held with SciQuest to plan an interim implementation schedule prior to Banner Finance module (7/2009). The target date for implementing a portion of purchasing activities is August 2008.
- Resource 25 – Classroom Scheduling
CollegeNET’s Resource 25 software was selected and purchased for classroom and event scheduling. Resource 25 also contains a room optimization and utilization reporting module called X25.
- fsa ATLAS
Software to manage information on international students, called fsa Atlas,
was installed and data conversion has begun. The program is targeted to go live in April 2008.
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